Seeking once again the Lord's
help to speak to you this morning, I'd like to draw your attention
to the chapter that we read together, Lamentations chapter 3, and the
text you'll find in verses 22 and 23. It is of the Lord's mercies
that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They
are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. You know in some places of worship
the minister is asked to choose all of the hymns or even the
last hymn. And as I was thinking about that
yesterday, I thought, well, the most suitable hymn for today,
if I was to be able to choose one, would be Great Is Thy Faithfulness. And so I was very encouraged
by all of the hymns so far that we've had today, that we started
with Great is thy faithfulness great is thy faithfulness morning
by morning new mercies i see all i have needed thy hand hath
provided great is thy faithfulness lord unto me and obviously the
hymn would be of taken from this these verses that they are new
every morning great is thy faithfulness as jerry meyer looked at the destruction of
Jerusalem as he looked back over his ministry and he saw how the
Lord had worked in his life, anointed
him as a prophet, given him the words to speak to the people
of Israel And as he saw them harden their hearts and not listen
to the message, as he warned them and warned them and warned
them, as he was witness to the destruction of Jerusalem and
the sieges that took place, and as he saw the promises fulfilled
that they would be taken off to Babylon, that the temple would
be destroyed, the walls of Jerusalem destroyed, And as he was witnessing
all of those things, he was filled with sadness. As he saw the ruined
city, the consequences of the hardness of the heart of the
people, he was in despair. And so he writes this poem, these
poems of lamentations and how he pours out his sadness at the
things that he sees. He begins in chapter one, how
does a city sit solitary that was full of people? How has she
become as a widow? She was great among the nations
and princes among the provinces. How has she become a tributary? And he goes on and with his despair
at the things that he sees. He had been the one along with
other prophets to warn the people and you can imagine how he felt.
that he was receiving this direct revelation from God and telling
the people of the warnings that God was giving to them and then
to witness them hardening their hearts and turning away and then
to even witness the consequences of that rejection. You could
imagine what ran through his mind if only they had listened
and all of these things would not have taken place if only
they had taken note of the warnings that I had given to them that
the Lord had given to them through me then these things wouldn't
have happened and as he looks at the destruction and the sadness
he is reminded that it was for a reason that God did not just
come out of the blue destroy these people or to destroy this
city but there was a purpose in it, there was a reason for
it. He says in chapter 3 in verse
1, I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his
wrath. He hath led me and brought me
into darkness but not into light. Surely against me he has turned,
he has turned his hand against me all the day.' And he goes
on about the consequences of all that he himself has gone
through but he recognises that it was the Lord. He calls it
the rot of his wrath. I am the man that has seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath. And so as he sees that destroyed
city, he understands that it's God who has come in with a rod,
a rod, a discipline. He has acted with discipline
upon the children of Israel because they rebelled against him and
did not listen to his message of warning and so the destruction
points him to God the sadness points him to God
and he sees that this is a effect of the sin of his people And
he comes to this understanding. It is of God's mercy that we
have not been consumed. You see, God didn't completely
destroy the children of Israel. You know, the city was wasted
and the temple was wasted and the precious things carried off
to Babylon. But God preserved his people.
He took them into Babylon. He told them to live well there,
to build houses and to have children and to establish themselves there
because he was going to come again and bring them back to
Israel. And so he recognises that all
of this destruction, it is not the end, but God acted in mercy. It is of God's mercy that Israel
has not been wiped off the face of the earth because of their
behaviour. And if you look at the account
of how they treated Jeremiah and the other prophets, even
Jesus picks them up in the New Testament of the way that they
dealt with the prophets that were sent to them. Some they
stoned, some they killed, some they put out of the city. the very men who brought the
message of salvation, the very men who brought the word of reconciliation,
the word of warning, were the men that they persecuted and
then in the end they persecuted and crucified the ultimate prophet,
the final prophet of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Jeremiah,
as he looks at the destruction, as he looks at all that has taken
place, he says, God has acted in a merciful way. We deserved
much more than what he has done to us. We deserved a greater
punishment. He could have even annihilated
all of Israel. but it is his mercy that we are
not consumed. We know when people say that
something has been consumed, it's been consumed in the fire,
it has been utterly eradicated, there's no trace of it anymore. And he says it is of God's mercy. God has acted in a merciful way
that this people of Israel, they are still there. still his people. God has remained faithful to
his covenant that he made with them. They have acted unfaithfully
but God has remained faithful and so they were punished because
of their sin and it was not just that they were
carried away captive even Jeremiah felt himself that he was in the
darkness. You see although the main body
of people had been carried away it still had an effect upon those
that remained, still had an effect upon Jeremiah a godly man. The way that God had dealt with
the main body touched him And he says, I feel to be in the
darkness. The Lord has brought me into
the darkness. He says, my flesh and my skin
he made old. He has built it against me. He has acted with compassion. He has set me in a dark place.
He says, when I cry, I shout. He shuts out my prayer. Yet it's of the Lord's mercies
that we have not been consumed. You see God looked on the children
of Israel as his son. Remember when they were in Egypt
he said that they were his firstborn son and so God dealt with them
as a son. He disciplined them because he
loved them and he wanted them to turn from their idol worship
and their rebellion against him and so he chastened them, he
gave them warnings first, like we often do with our children.
But God seems more patient than we are with our children. We
say, if you do it again, you'll be in trouble. One, two, three,
right, discipline. But God, his patience is long. He sent prophet after prophet,
warning after warning, yet the time came when he must act. He must bring about a discipline.
He must bring about the stroke of his rod to chasten them and
so that they would come to their senses and return to him. In Hebrews it tells us there the purposes
of God's chastening hand. You see sometimes God has to
deal with us. But the way that he deals with
us is not to destroy us. It's never to destroy his people. It is always to bring them to
the knowledge of their sin and to restore them so that they
turn back to him. Hebrews 12 verse 5. and ye have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not
the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of
him. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth, and scourges every son whom he receiveth. If you
endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what
son is he whom the father chasteneth not? And it goes on speaking
about the reasons why God chastens his children. He leaves the world
to continue on doing what they want to do and even if he brings
a judgment into their life or a chastening into their life
it has no effect upon them. They don't see it as from God,
they see it as an annoyance, as a difficulty. But the chastening
hand of God turns his people to himself. It brings them to
their senses, they're enabled to see the sin which he is chastening
them for. The children of Israel, it was
because they had sinned against him, they had gone against the
covenant that he had made with them. They had had other idols,
had turned away from his worship, his ceremonies, his Sabbaths,
And so he comes and he disciplines them to bring them back to himself. And so he would do that in the
lives of his people and he does do that. He brings things specifically
into their life to chasten them, to turn them from their sin and
their idol worship. and to cause them to turn unto
himself. He doesn't destroy them but his
chastening hand is to restore them back to himself. In verse one Jeremiah calls it
by the rod of his wrath. Verse 39, wherefore does a living
man complain? a man for the punishment of his
sins. Let us search and try our ways
and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts and
with our hands unto God in the heavens. We have transgressed
and rebelled. Thou hast not pardoned. Thou
hast covered us. with anger and persecuted us. Thou hast slain and hast not
pitied. Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud that our prayers
should not pass through. And so Jeremiah sees it's the
rod of the Lord. His rod has come because of our
sin. And you can't complain. Sometimes
we say to the children, if you are not so naughty, then you
wouldn't be disciplined. If you don't want to be disciplined,
don't be naughty. It's quite a simple thing. And
you cannot complain if God disciplines you because he's disciplining
you or disciplining us because of our sin which we have sinned
against him. And he is seeking to use discipline
to show us our sin and to set us on that straight pathway. How can you complain? Wherefore
does a living man complain? A man for the punishment of our
sins. After David was told that he
would not be allowed to build the temple God said that his
son would build it. And in 2 Samuel There's an interesting thing
that is said regarding Solomon. Solomon is told, you continue
on in my ways. You do as I have commanded you
to do. You follow my laws and everything
like that. But if you don't. I'm going to
do something. Second Samuel chapter seven from
verse 13. He says, he shall build a house
for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit
iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with
the stripes of the children of men. But my mercy shall not depart
always from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before
thee. There he says, I would have chastened
him with the rod of men. And as we read through the Old
Testament, we see that time and time again that the Lord used
the enemies of Israel to bring about his own purposes, to chasten
them, to discipline them. The rod that he uses was the
enemies of Israel. And even in our own lives, God
has many rods that he can use to discipline his children. He
can use darkness. He can be as though he has distanced
himself from the believer and they can walk in paths of darkness
and loneliness and isolation and anxiety and a lack of assurance. Sometimes he uses the providential
path. the path that we live in, to
bring difficulty, to chasten us and to show us ourselves,
to show us our lack of faith, how quickly things fall apart
when external things fall apart. And he rebukes us and chastens
us. But the external pathway is never
to utterly destroy us, but it is a rod. rod of love held by
the hand of a loving father to bring about a knowledge of our
sin and our restoration and confession of our sin. And so we see that
that is how God told Solomon, I will use the rod of men if
you rebel against me. And we know if we look at the
life of Solomon and the way he indulged himself with lust and
everything like that and how the Lord disciplined his children
or split the tribes of Israel, cut them off because of the sins
of Solomon. And so God never inflicts discipline for no reason. There must be
a reason and a purpose. Ultimately that purpose is for
the good of his own people. Verse 32 tells us, But though
he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude
of his mercies. For he does not afflict willingly
nor grieve the children of men. does not afflict willingly. Those
who have had children understand sometimes we can act in anger
and we can discipline our children wrongly but when we discipline
in a right manner when we are restrained then that is a grief
to us. We do not enjoy it. It is not
pleasurable to discipline children. Sometimes children grow up with
that. They think well I can't wait till I have children then
I can discipline them. But when you get to that age
and you have your own children you realise that it's not a joy
to discipline them. We don't get pleasure out of
disciplining our children. It hurts us. But the reason why
we discipline is that we want them to be restored. We want their behaviour to be
altered. We want to set them on that right
course in which it is pleasing in the sight of the Lord. And
so God also disciplines his own children that are in Christ Jesus
to deal with their sin, to straighten them out, to make them acknowledge
their own weakness and dependence upon him and ultimately that
they may love him more and have a closer relationship with him. And so Jeremiah as he looks at
that destruction He says it's the Lord's hand that has done
this and the Lord has restrained his hand he has not dealt with
us as we deserve to be dealt with because we deserve to be
consumed because of our rebellion against him but he has acted
compassionately towards us He has had pity upon us because
his compassions they fail not. In Psalm 103 From verse 8 it says, The Lord
is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide or discipline,
neither will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with
us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy
towards them that fear him. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions or our sins
from us. like as a father pitieth his
children so the lord pitieth them that fear him for he knoweth
our frame he remembers that we are dust for as for a man his
days are a grass as a flower of the field it flourishes for
the wind passes over it and it's gone and the place thereof shall
know shall shall known it no more. There in verse 13. Like as a father pities his children,
so the Lord pities them that fear him. It is of the Lord's
mercies that we are not consumed. Why? Because his compassions
fail not. His pity does not fail. Thinking about this, my mind
was drawn to the problems that we are having here in Hastings
with the water main. The water main is a vital part
of the infrastructure of any city, any town, and it failed. 31,000 people, they say, yesterday
were without water because a pipe failed. But God
never fails. His compassions, they do not
fail. His pity does not fail. His love does not fail. The scripture says his word does
not fail. Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my word shall not pass away. And all those people that were
totally dependent upon a water main suffered the consequences
of a catastrophic failure. because of a burst pipe. Everyone who was trusting in
that main to satisfy their thirst went thirsty. But not with those
who trust in the Lord, not with those who are in Christ Jesus,
not with those whose father there is God because his compassion,
it doesn't fail. It has no weaknesses. It's never
going to rupture. It is always going to supply
everything that they could ever need. And even if he has to supply
a disciplined hand upon them, it is done because he is full
of compassion and he doesn't want his children to err or to
go out of the way or to be drawn aside by sin. And so when he strokes us with
his rod, it is done out of compassion. We must never forget that. If
we are one of the Lord's people, if he deals with us in a way
that we deem to be harsh, it is done because we need it. has a great purpose in it and
that purpose is because we have something that he wants to bring
out of our life, to remove from our life. You think of the gold
that is placed above the fire, that the smith has to heat it
up in order to purify it and to remove the dross and it must
be placed over that furnace. And so God places his people
into his furnace, his disciplinary furnace. in order to purify them
and to scrape off any filth which they are harbouring in their
life to make them more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. And so his compassions, they
never fail. As the water main failed, God's
compassions, they do not fail. They are new every single morning. It doesn't mean that God renews
his covenant with his people every single morning, for his
covenant was established of old. But it means that his people experience new blessings every
single morning, day by day. They are granted
sufficient strength. Day by day, his compassion is
newly received upon them. He doesn't deal with them as
they deserve to be dealt with from the past today. He doesn't
say, oh well, look at James, this is what he did yesterday,
so I'm going to utterly wipe him off the face of the earth
because of his sin. He says, no, he's going to begin
a new day. My compassion will be enough
for him today. And so we receive a fresh supply
of grace and mercy. We're not wiped off or done away
with. They are new every morning. In
Corinthians it tells us there as the apostle experienced a
great trial, persecution, he acknowledged that God sustained
him day by day. 2 Corinthians 4 16 to 17 it says,
For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day. for our light affliction
is but for a moment working for us far more exceedingly the eternal
weight of glory. Day by day he says that the outward
man is perishing is struggling is persecuted yet the inner man
the spiritual man is renewed day by day. Day by day His faithfulness, his compassions,
they are new every morning. Day by day, that water main brought
water to the people of Hastings. But one day, it failed. At God's compassion, they fail
not. Many people were kept alive by
that water main without even thinking about it. The day before
they went to their taps and they were supplied, they went to their
showers, they went to their baths, they watered their gardens and
they were utterly dependent upon that to continue on in their
life of ease. And yet the main burst failed. God's compassions for his people,
they fail not. They are new every morning, new
supplies of grace given every single morning, never going to
wake up and say, oh, the main has burst today. No grace today. No, every morning they receive
a fresh supply for the day ahead because God is faithful. He is a faithful God. was faithful
to the children of Israel because he made a covenant with them.
They acted wrongly. He says you have acted like a
rebellious and adulterous wife and yet I bring you back. I allow
you back. I offer my hand of mercy to you
They were in a covenant relationship with each other, yet one acted
as an adulteress. Yet God remained faithful to
his covenant. His side, he remained faithful. His hand was stretched out to
his people in love, and although he came and disciplined them,
he did so because he loved them and wanted to restore them. Because
great is his faithfulness. God is a faithful God. He is a God that can be trusted. Unlike the water main that cannot
be trusted, once it has ruptured it will continue to rupture. Yet God is faithful. His faithfulness is steadfast,
unchanging, unmovable. He always acts in love and compassion
towards his people even when he has to discipline them. You
think of Noah. There are four or five covenants
given throughout the Old Testament but this one in particular is quite obvious for us to see.
Genesis 8. After the waters had gone down and Noah and his family come
out of the ark God, he offers a sacrifice and God speaks. It's
in chapter 8 and verse 21. And the Lord smelled a sweet
savour, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse
the ground any more for man's sake, for the imagination of
men's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I again smite
any more every living thing that I have done. or the earth remains,
seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day
and night shall not cease. Go over to chapter 9. We see
there that in verse 9, And I behold, I will establish my covenant
with you and with your seed after you. And so God establishes a
covenant with Noah and the whole of the human race. And we witness
that when we see the rainbow in the sky. God put that there
as a sign or a token of his covenant that he made with Noah and that
he made with the whole of the human race. 5,000 years or so, that covenant has
been standing. It has not altered. God is faithful. to his word. He says, I know
that your hearts are evil from your youth. I know you go forth
from the womb speaking lies. That is not going to alter my
love and my grace in which I am going to make a covenant with
myself regarding what I am going to do for the human race. I will
put this rainbow in the sky that you also might be able to remember
of this covenant that I have made. While the earth remains,
seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day
and night will not cease. If you look at that water main, the only reason we can have a
water main is because of God's covenant. You see, if God decided,
which he cannot, to break this covenant, summer and winter could cease. Day and night could cease. Sea
time and harvest could cease. And so the only reason that we
can have infrastructure is because of God's covenant that he made
with the human race that he is going to provide the necessary
things that we need to be able to live. All we do is we harness
those things of God and we channel them to make our lives more easier.
The gas is theirs because of God's put it there. The oil is
there because God put it there. The sun is there because God
put it there. The water is there because God
put it there. The wind is there because God
put it there. And all of these things which
we try and harness, wind power, solar, water, and all of these
things are there because of God's greater covenant. He doesn't
fail. He is faithful. But our infrastructure
fails. Water mains, power cuts, gas shortages, they fail. But God is faithful. And you see how dependent we
are on the infrastructure that is round about us. And when we
were in Africa, because they were used to struggling, it's
quite easy for them to adapt very quickly. But because we're
so reliant on our infrastructure, as soon as one thing breaks,
we're unprepared and chaos ensues. And you see how many people,
31,000 people are reliant upon one pipe to supply their water. You know there are like eight
billion people on the earth at this time. And all of them are
reliant upon one God and his covenant that he made with Noah
that he would remain faithful to that promise. That he would
provide the seasons, the rain and the sunshine, the day and
night until the end of time. His mercies are new every morning
and great is his faithfulness. We know that God's faithfulness
was so great that he gave his only beloved son and he entered
into a covenant with his son He saw that the human race was
unable to save themselves. Their heart was deceitful. The
imagination of their hearts was evil from their youth. He knew
that they could never remain faithful to their side of the
covenant. So he entered into a covenant
with his son. And his beloved son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, became the mediator of the new covenant. And in him, he was able to keep
that covenant, that side of the bargain, as it were. Christ kept
it. And he was the representative
of his people. And so as Christ kept the covenant
in him, his people also were kept. He was that mediator of
the new covenant. a covenant that God brought about for the salvation
of his people. So in that covenant between father
and son, Christ acted as that head, that representative of
his people. And although he disciplines his
people like he disciplined the children of Israel. Because of
their sin he does it in love. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed because his compassions they fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness and
God is a great God and he is faithful to His covenant, He
will never change, He will never go outside of what He has said
already, He will remain faithful to His people. May the Lord add
His blessing. Amen. Our closing hymn is hymn number
one from Hymns of Worship. Will people that on earth do
dwell, sing to the Lord with cheerful voice. Him serve with
fear, his praise foretell, come ye before him and rejoice. Hymn
number one from Hymns of Worship, the tune 382. Oh, people that are left in doubt,
sing to the Lord with me. ? Come ye before him well rejoiced
? ? For he, the Lord, is God indeed ? ? Without a rate to
do the work ? ? His sheep made whole the day
? ? O enter in His churches with praise ? ? The price for joy
is more than praise alone ? same place. Praise God from Him, all blessings
flow. Praise Him, all creatures, if
they know. Praise Him above, ye heav'nly
hosts. Dear Lord, we do thank Thee for
Thy Word and for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank Thee that Thou
art faithful, although everything around about us may fail, Thou
remain faithful unto the end. We pray the Lord that Thou dismiss
us with Thy blessing, do return us together again this evening
in Thy time and way. Now may the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship
and the communion of the Holy Spirit, rest and abide with us
each now and for evermore. Amen.